The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-05-04
USING Up THE WASTE.
How Refuse Scraps Are Turned into Money
"A Chance for "A Fortune.
Rial

"A Chance for "a Fortune.
Baltimore sun.
Nearly every schOolbOy has heard of
the extraordinary care that is taken to
prevent waste in arts requiring the use
of gold. All know how the gold dust is
collected, and that even the hand wash
ings are saved for the extraction Of all
the PARTICLES of gold found therein. The
general public have no idea. however. in
this utilitarian age, how nearly every
business is conducted on this saving prn-
ciple. nor what vast amounts are saved
by utilizing what would otherwis.. be-
waste. This fact calls up the suggestion
that many useful enterprises might liz
given To Baltimore that are absorbed by
Yankee genius, and that many men now
having irregular work might be fur
nished with steady employment. Cap
ital might find also an outlet that would
be extremely advantageous.
Every resident can recOllect the i'm
nense piles of waste tin from the can
shops that used to glitter in the hollows
of East baltimore and upon every dump
i'm that section a dozen years ago. The
first use of this waste was by poor man
from the North who obtained permission
to- set up a machine in Smith K Wick 5
can shop in this city. Here he bought
scraps for almost nothing. and cut out
TN otsNh W Stfitt
wards the stamps for shaping the but
tons We're introduced, and the individ-
ual reaped large fortune from his en-
terprise- The next Use of tin scrap was
for smelling. The tin at first refused To
flow when subjected to the heat of the
furnace. Ii was discovered that il would
pay to cut the tin coating chemically.
and that the sheet iron would then smelt
and flow. Out of this grew the man
70. II.
them are now found that are not made
from tin scrap. Several foundries us.,
up all that is made. The scrap is pounded
into wads by stamping it in large buck
cts.
A most interesting feature of all bust
nesses using leather is that not one par
ticle of the leather is wasted. Our shoe
factories alone sell annually fifty tons of
waste. This goes mainly to firm in Phil
adelphia, who pay 81 ton for it. \
large amount is sent to Lynn. Mass and
other points. where the leather is ground
up, mixed with a medium and pressed
into buttons. The remainder that Is
not so used is treated chemically. turned
into a gelatinuous mass dried and ground
into fertiliZing dust. The sole leather
pieces that fall from the block of the
heel stamper are sorted into two heaps.
The very small pieces are put with the
fine waste. The scraps. presenting a sur
face of a couple of square inches, are bar
relied up and sold to parties in New York
or Boston at one cent a pound. where
they are put through a peculiar machine.
This instrument splits the pieces nearly
through. Then il opens the piece thus
cut like book. Thence il is delivered
from between rollers. and is large enough
to lie again sent To the factory to lie cut
up into heel lifts. An enterprise To util
ize scrap leather i'll Baltimore would
probably pay
There is another small but important
industry which goes to prove how ordi,
nary wastes of business may be- turned Il
account. This is a work of long standing
though not generally known. In every
photograph gallery there l. annually a
large amount of waste silvered paper
This Is all thrown into a box. and i,
bought or exchanged for nitrate silver.
The comparatively small amount col
lected in one gallery aggregates a great
mass when all the galleries are consid
cred. This paper il burned. and the sill
Yer that is extracted from the residue
pays sufficiently at least for a good Inv
ing. The time was, not very remote. too.
when the coal tar from gas-houses was a
nuisance III every harbor. Now every
bit of the tar is utilized. and some of the
finest dyes ever known are made from IL
As yet no large Use has been made OF
the refuse of sawmills. sash factories or
other large woodworking establish
ments. At the present price of fuel il
may he that large fortune awaits the
energetic individual who learns a CHEAP
way of pressing sawdust and factory re-
fuse into bricks that may be easily han
died and burned. Much money has al
ready been made in the sawdust. but not
on the exact line here suggested. There
are further possibilities in it.